


Stunted Bonds

by mxacey



Series: Toyverse [2]
Category: Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - BDSM, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Background Relationships, Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Humor, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Origin Story, Ouma being an asshole pls forgib, Oumoron, Past Relationship(s), Slice of Life, Storytelling, Sumb, Tarot, also featuring a heavily implied DICE ship that no one asked for not even me, no smut but in the same canon as Toy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-25 16:51:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17125112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mxacey/pseuds/mxacey
Summary: After witnessing a fight between his partner Kokichi and his DICE colleague Spades, Shuichi goes on an impromptu morning outing with her not only to cheer her up, but to discover the origins behind his codename which was coined by none other than Spades herself.





	Stunted Bonds

**Author's Note:**

> I started this sequel of sorts on March 2nd, and only just this week completed its first draft. 10k words for one flippin chapter aaaa
> 
> After finishing (and even in the progress of writing) Toy, I had a bunch of ideas for little continuations and this was one of them. If you haven't read Toy, there are events from it that I reference or allude to here. There's worldbuilding apart from the bulk of the smut in chapter 2, so if for whatever reason you don't want to read the filth you can scroll through it to get the other story aspects. But in this story, there's really no BDSM other than the acknowledgement that, in this AU, it's an aspect of Shuichi and Kokichi's relationship.
> 
> Many thanks to everyone who left encouraging comments—it really helped me stay motivated! T.T
> 
> Specific thanks to my friends Rudy, Milky, Savvy, and (my husband) Kyme. Thank you all for betaing as I worked on this!
> 
> And final additional thanks and wuv to my friend (who requested to remain anonymous) who drew the illustrations for this chapter! They are amazing and I love them so much!
> 
> Guide to who's who in DICE in Toyverse: https://i.imgur.com/LTctSsX.png
> 
> I hope you enjoy reading this, and happy holidays!

When Saihara Shuichi, with his black messenger bag tucked under his arm, opened his bedroom door to begin his descent down the staircase and start his day, he didn’t know what to make of the tail-end of the incident he was witnessing. Below Spades stood, facing Kokichi, her countenance contorted in anger while she pointed her finger directly at their superior’s face.

“—I am _SICK_ of cleaning this shit up!” Spades gestured wildly at the space around her and then to a can on the coffee table by the couches. “I’m not your maid, none of us are! If you want a maid, hire that former classmate of yours, I’m sure she’d just _love_ to find half-full and empty cans in every nook and cranny of this damn base!”

“Then don’t clean it up,” Kokichi’s voice was calm and indifferent, and Shuichi could tell by his posture that the man was looking at his nails. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. You point it out, I’ll take care of it. It’s just aluminum.”

“ _UGH!_ Why are you so IMPOSSIBLE? Why can’t you get something so FUCKING simple?!” Her hands were clenched by her sides, and it looked like she was shaking from restraining the full strength of her wrath.

“No, why can’t _YOU_ get something ‘so fucking simple?’ They’re just cans! It’s really not the end of the world.”

“ _THIS IS HOW YOU GET ROACHES MOON-MOON!”_ she screeched, and Shuichi winced from enduring the shrill noise so early in the morning, especially prior to having his morning coffee. “This is our mutual living space! And work space! You need to respect it, it’s not my job to remind you to do that!”

“And what exactly _is_ your job, Spades?” At that Shuichi cringed, easily recognizing the comment as one of Kokichi’s ice-cold, cutthroat deflections; clearly everyone woke up in a shitty mood that Tuesday. The leader continued, “Whatever. I don’t need this.” He put his hands in his pockets and walked right past Spades, whose eyes were clenched shut. “Later, witch-bitch. I got places to be.” After Kokichi walked to the door, opened it, and slammed it shut behind him, Spades threw her hands up and screamed in frustration.

Shuichi stood frozen, unsure, at the top of the stairs. After he had gotten... _involved_ , with Kokichi, before he had been properly introduced to the other nine members of DICE, he was given a specific warning about Spades:

_“She’s got invaluable and needed insight that helps keep me in check, but she’s also a mean bitter witch who will curse you in a split-second if you piss her off.”_

Back then Shuichi wasn’t convinced he should take Kokichi’s caution seriously, but he noted she generally kept very much to herself. He didn’t quite know what to make of her stand-offish exterior and biting quips that could, at times, remind him of Harukawa’s death-glares and did _wonders_ for heightening his generalized anxiety about being liked by the friends/family of his new boyfriend. Gradually he fell into observation. It didn’t take long to see that Kokichi and Spades’ dynamic was like mixing slick oil and sharp vinegar, but he could also tell that the whole group was rather like an emulsion of different but ultimately complementary talents and personalities. The two could bicker incessantly, but hard feelings didn’t seem to last for long, and in the end they seemed to have each other’s backs.

But despite his unease, when Shuichi saw Spades _crumple_ to the floor, bringing her hands up to her eyes, long hair masking her face and her shoulders starting to shake, he didn’t hesitate in climbing down the stairs to go over to her. When he was halfway down the winding staircase, Shuichi got a glimpse of Spades looking up at him, then rubbing her eyes with her sleeve. He was almost to her when she sighed, looking up at him from her fetal position with a piercing gaze.

“Can I just catch a break today? You’re normally not awake this early.”

Shuichi laughed nervously. It was just a little after 8:00 AM, and she wasn’t _wrong_ … “I, uh, wanted to get an earlier start on the investigation my uncle asked for help with.” His face softened as he looked at her again. “But that’s not important right now. Are you okay?” He offered out a hand to help her up, but Spades just clutched her knees tighter.

“I’ll be fine. How long have you been here?” She stared with suspicion.

“Um…” he trailed off, trying to quickly locate the right phrasing. “Well, long enough that I heard that you’re unhappy with cleaning up Kokichi’s messes.”

She groaned, burying her face into her knees. “Just great. Please, I really _really_ don’t need a lecture, or excuses for how Moon-Moon really is a human at heart, he’s just a werehuman and is a dickish, dumb wolf 97% of the time.”

“I’m not going to lecture you.” Her gaze snapped up to Shuichi, searching. The way she studied his face reminded him a lot of Kokichi, and he was beginning to think that those similarities were one reason why the two clashed so vehemently. “I can’t say I think his dismissal of you just now was justified—even if you were yelling at him. I may be in a relationship with him, but that doesn’t mean I kiss the ground he walks on.” His lips quirked into a nervous, but still warm, smile.

She eyed him warily. “Says the guy with a collar around his neck.”

Suddenly the aluminum ring that caressed his neck felt heavy, and Shuichi was more self-conscious of its presence. Blushing, he stammered, “Th-that’s—”

“—It’s different, I know. Sorry.” She lifted her head up and rested her chin on her knees. “I know for you guys it’s more like a wedding ring than literal ownership.” While still red-faced, Shuichi nodded. He swallowed anxiously before closing his eyes and letting out a deep exhale. After he opened his eyes, he offered his hand again. Spades tilted her head a bit.

“I thought you didn’t like me.” She took his hand, and Shuichi helped her stand up. “Four years and you’ve never really talked to me one-on-one before.” The detective again laughed nervously, smiling slightly with his eyebrows furrowed.

“I guess there was a bit of a misunderstanding between us? I...kinda had the same impression.” He hesitated, his gaze habitually drifting towards the floor at the corner of his vision. “Um, you don’t really...talk much, and when people do talk to you, a lot of times you seem sort of annoyed.”

“I’m a Virgo and my blood type is B.” Spades shrugged, and Shuichi recalled the chocolate cake that Trick and Chip had brought in for Spades earlier that year, roughly two weeks before his own birthday. “But really I’m just incredibly introverted.”

“I can relate to that,” Shuichi chuckled. The two looked at each other with slight smiles, finally forming the beginnings of a connection. Spades broke the stretch of silence just as it was turning awkward.

“So um, thanks for checking on me. You said you had stuff to do, so I won’t keep you.” Moving over to the coffee table, Spades grabbed some tissues to wipe her face and blow her nose. After disposing of the tissues and giving the half-full panta can the stink eye, she used some of the hand sanitizer left on the table.

As she was doing all that, Shuichi heard his phone chime. Pulling it out of his pocket, he saw he had just received a text from Kokichi. Immediately he opened it.

_(^з^)-♡ Good morning my darling! Sorry to be a last-minute ass and disappear, but something came up so I need to cancel our breakfast date. I promise I’ll make it up to you, but at least you can sleep a bit longer~ Love you!_

Hand over his mouth, Shuichi stared in disbelief at the screen for a few seconds before a stifled snigger slipped through his lips. Quickly that evolved into breathy cackling, tears coming to his eyes. Shuichi was awake enough to understand _exactly_ what was happening, but not enough to actually be upset with his boyfriend’s ridiculousness.

Spades stared at him, baffled. “What’s with you?”

“Let’s just say my 8:30 abruptly canceled and now I woke up early for no reason,” Shuichi sighed and shook his head, though he still had a bemused smile. Spades raised her eyebrow, so he gestured her over, presenting his phone screen when she was closer. She gaped.

“Oh. _My god._ ” Shuichi couldn’t stop himself from giggling at that. “He _canceled_ a date with you because he’s pissed at me? Oh my god, I’m so sorry Pageboy—”

“— _Don’t_ be,” Shuichi managed to hush through his bout of laughter. “It’s not your fault that he canceled. That’s his choice, you didn’t make him do it.” Shuichi realized, but kept to himself, that Kokichi was not only letting his irritation get the better of him, but he was also _aware_ that he was. The man probably knew, at least to an extent, that he was being a bit insufferable. Kokichi’s kind lie in canceling was to spare his love from the acidic behavior he threw at Spades, but it also likely contained an element of selfishness in that he didn’t want to talk about the fight and get called out on his behavior. So, for the time being he was stewing in his hissy fit, wanting to work through it on his own time and on his own terms. Textbook, typical Kokichi. But Spades still didn’t seem too comforted by his words, her lips pressed into a firm line and cheeks slightly protruding in a huff. Shuichi smiled down at her. “I still need to get some coffee, and since I’m apparently now free, why don’t I take _you_ to breakfast? My treat, you pick the place. No reason to continue your day on a sour note.”

Spades just stared at him, eyes slowly widening in shock. Rapidly Shuichi felt his heart-rate elevate as his anxiety rose, his fingers beginning to twitch, his face fall. He was about to sputter out an apology when Spades finally spoke up.

“Holy crap, since when can you be that smooth?”

Shuichi let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding, reeling from the whiplash of the backhanded compliment. “Um, thanks? Is that a yes?”

Spades looked gravely solemn, but her eyes twinkled with hope. “Only if we go to the cat cafe in Block 15.”

Shuichi laughed from relief, feeling like he was starting to get an accurate handle on her personality. “Deal.”

“YES!” Spades jumped in excitement, quickly closing the distance between the two to give Shuichi a strong hug. She pulled back and skipped away, long hair trailing behind her, before he could really process his surprise. “Gimme fifteen minutes! I’m not going out in this wacky uniform and I need to put my hair up.”

“Ah, sure,” he called after her, a smile coming to his face that he had already improved her mood. With how easily the two seemed to be getting along despite a couple of hiccups, Shuichi was beginning to wonder if underneath Kokichi’s warnings of her laid an ulterior motive. As he waited, he felt his back pocket to verify he had his wallet, then he texted an informal acknowledgement of Kokichi’s cancellation and echoed his proclamation of affection. No reason to be too upset, as the man had inadvertently provided Shuichi with a bonding opportunity with their teammate. Perhaps he could even investigate and uncover what reasons Kokichi had to encourage Shuichi to keep his distance from the withdrawn ‘witch’ of DICE.

Drawn out of his ponderings by the sound of thick heels trotting against the concrete floor, Shuichi turned to greet Spades before they headed out. It was very seldom he ever saw her clothes other than the DICE uniform, and if she wasn’t wearing that it was usually jeans and a sweater. Today she was sporting a knee-length, dark brown plaid suspenders skirt over black tights and a cream-colored pullover featuring embroidered silhouettes of cats along the two horizontal dark grey lines that stretched around its chest. Strapped over her shoulder was a lighter brown faux-leather bag in the shape of _taiyaki._  The heels he heard clacking against the flooring belonged to a pair of dark brown mary jane platform pumps, and he saw that Spades had tied her hair up into a bun. He felt _incredibly_ plain in comparison, with his dress slacks and white collared dress shirt underneath his beige jacket. Not to mention his increasing anxiety that what was meant to be treating a colleague (friend?) to breakfast was really starting to both look and feel like a date. She gave him an impassive look.

“Relax, I know I’m super cute and everything, but you’re not my type. Besides, like hell I’d try to steal anyone who’s slept with the Boss. I just wanna look adorable for when I send him gloating pictures!” She grinned up at him, and he sighed and shook his head slightly as they walked toward the exit.

“And here I thought Kokichi was the blunt one of the group.” His smile was light, Shuichi rolling off the insult with ease, having years of experience doing the same with the loving and dumbfounded jabs from his high school classmates.

“Nah! Moon-Moon is too serpentine to be _genuinely_ blunt. See, _I’m_ direct, he’s just cheeky. They’re very different, distinct flavors of jackass.” She had a bounce to her step as they entered the elevator, pushing the button to the main floor of the factory of Iruma Corp Utility Manufacturing, the mundane, outward facade for DICE’s base. As the cage closed, creaky metal jostling out of its slumber to hoist them to the surface, Shuichi adjusted his hold on his bag and hummed thoughtfully.

“I suppose that perspective makes some amount of sense...” he trailed off, then yawned. As he reached into his bag to pull out and affix his blue muffler, Shuichi glanced down at Spades, who was just closing her mouth from a sympathetic yawn. Again she quirked an eyebrow at him.

“Wow, you never stop analyzing everything, do you?” She playfully balanced on her heels as the elevator came to a stop and the gate reopened. Stabilizing her footing, Spades glided forward without pause.

“Yeah...not really,” Shuichi consented, instinctively matching her pace as they navigated their org’s entrance hall which wore the mask of a storage/supply closet in Iruma’s factory. When they reached the fire exit door, Shuichi checked the hidden video feed of the alleyway outside. After Shuichi gave her an affirmative nod, Spades routinely input her passcode on the keypad next to the door, then turned the knob and walked through. Shuichi wasn’t too far behind, knowing the two only had 25 seconds to get out of sight of the security camera before it resumed recording as usual.

Out on the street, the two easily folded in with the usual foot-traffic, barely earning a glance even with the two coming out from an alley. It was unusually warm for a morning in early December, already around 7.8 degrees centigrade before 9 am. Shuichi already felt a little more awake from the cool air grazing his face, but knew that until he had his first cup of coffee he would remain a parody of consciousness. However, as he glanced down at Spades as the two walked the few blocks to Block 15, he was relieved to find a light smile on her face.

“You ever been to this cafe?” Shuichi inquired casually, breaking the comfortable silence.

“Yeah, me and Big Sib go there all the time! We go waaay back with the owner, and her cafe actually serves _Lulu Kashi_ pastries! I swear my mouth melts every time I have one of her fruit tarts.” Spades groaned in excited anticipation, but Shuichi was taken aback by the unexpected, major name drop. About two years prior he had been accosted by Ando Ruruka to take a case, and said case directly hurled Shuichi down the rabbit hole of BDSM scene and culture. As a consequence, he knew the other sub personally, and that her confections were as exquisite and expensive as the woman herself was bratty and brutal.

“H-how much does the place charge for them?” Not that he didn’t have the money—in fact, Shuichi had more than he knew what to do with, combined from his detective work, residuals from ‘acting’ as a baby in his parents’ films, and payment from DICE contracts. He was just frugal to a fault, and generally only splurged on practical purchases. ( _“The only thing boring about you is your money-spending habits,”_ as Kokichi put it once.)

“Heh, worried I’m gonna fleece your wallet because you offered to get me breakfast?” Spades snickered, causing Shuichi to slightly flush at the callout. “Relax, the fact that they have _Lulu_ stuff is a secret, so keep it on the downlow. Apparently the cafe only gets ‘reject’ sweets in stock, excess that isn’t quite up to the maker’s prissy aesthetic standards, so it’s priced pretty reasonably.”

_That’s the most believable thing I’ve heard yet today,_ Shuichi mused dryly. “You must be quite close to the owner to be aware of a secret like that.”

“Yep! Aiko-chan’s pretty great, although I _do_ wish she and Big Sib would quit dancing around and just confess already,” she grumbled, and Shuichi was a bit surprised to learn that Chip was romantically interested in someone. He’d never even seen his x-gender associate look remotely flustered or unsure that he could recall. They always seemed cool, collected, and unfazed by _anything—_ although they were still pleasant to interact with. “The sooner they do, the sooner I can become Aiko-chan’s little sister-in-law!” With a cheeky grin, Spades looked back at the detective, and he chuckled. _This actually might end up being a lot of fun._

She abruptly stopped before a storefront, which—while it did have the seating layout and overall feel of a cafe from what Shuichi could see just looking through the windows—didn’t appear to have any lights on. As his colleague was on her phone, Shuichi woke up to the reality that specialty cafes were pretty much _never_ open for early hours. People don’t go to a cat cafe or a maid cafe for breakfast, they go to one during lunch, or after work or school.

Shuichi couldn’t stop himself from voicing his worries. “Um, are they even open at this time of day…?” He laughed anxiously, trying to play it off as casual by failing miserably. Spades looked up from her phone and grinned.

“Nope! I called in a favor. Took you long enough to realize it, though,” she snickered. “You really are hopeless in the mornings, aren’t you? Was that smooth invite a fluke?”

“Apparently so,” Shuichi groaned, closing his eyes and rubbing his temples. When he opened them again, Shuichi saw Spades peering up at him with a pouty frown.

“I was just teasing. I’ll lay off the jokes for a bit.” Her arms were crossed, her expression flatly perturbed. When Shuichi raised an eyebrow at her, Spades unfolded her arms with a sigh. “You were doing that _thing—_ ” she gestured towards Shuichi’s torso and face “—you do when you’re exasperated with the Boss. ‘Why must I put up with this gremlin I choose to date.’ I’m not him,” she finished with a bitter grumble.

While Shuichi could process her current emotion, the whole exchange was a bit more than he could currently unpack. Luckily, he wasn’t given much time to stew in his inability to think effectively sans caffeine, because the lights of the cafe were turned on and the door opened shortly afterwards. An oddly familiar, blonde, young woman with heterochromatic eyes stood, smiling, at the door. While she looked a bit surprised at Shuichi’s presence, she was unable to get a single word out before she was practically tackled in an embrace from Spades.

_“Aiko-chaaaan!_ Good morning!” Spades essentially buried herself in the other woman’s chest as she hugged her. Shuichi blinked at the exchange, and it seemed like this ‘Aiko’ flushed slightly from embarrassment.

“Good morning to you too, Miho-chan. Aren’t you too old to keep greeting me like this?” While she was blushing, she was still smiling and laughing softly. Shuichi couldn’t shake the feeling that he had met this woman before, but clung to the most recent tidbit of surprising information.

“Miho...chan?” he tiredly repeated, looking down at Spades. His absent-minded question earned him two different looks, one unimpressed and the other confused. Spades pulled back from hugging her friend, laughing a bit while she did.

“Don’t mind dead-man walking, here. Seems like he’s just so used to addressing me as _Kagesa-san_ that he forgot I have a first name.” Though Spades snickered, there was a knowing glint in her eye as she looked back at Shuichi.

The significance dawned on him, and left Shuichi a bit floored. Everyone in DICE seemed to value their anonymity and their identities outside of the organization, and as a consequence there were only a few Shuichi possessed knowledge of (not including Kokichi): Ace was Yoshikawa Mika; Trick was Ueno Ringo; and Bones, the only American-born member of DICE, was Bob Butler. Spades, and Chip by association, until now had remained in the group of unknowns.

Remembering his manners, Shuichi bowed to the stranger that he wasn’t entirely sure was a stranger. “I apologize for any inconvenience caused by opening early. Though Kagesa-san suggested your cafe, it was my error in not verifying your normal operating hours before we left.”

“It’s quite alright! Miho-chan very rarely asks to be let in early, so I don’t mind. Although she _should_ have told me in her text that ‘we’ didn’t mean her and Minoru-kun.” Unbending from his bow, Shuichi saw the woman frowning a bit at Spades, who just grinned in response.

“Whoopsie!” Spades snickered and snuck past her friend, abandoning her and Shuichi at the door. He shifted slightly, awkwardly, as he laughed lightly at Spades’ antics.

“ _Miho-chan!”_ she scolded with a huff, before turning to address Shuichi, her expression a bit inquisitive. “Ah, and you are…?”

“Saihara Shuichi. I’m a colleague of Kagesa-san.” Shuichi merely bowed his head this time, but the woman’s eyes widened and her mouth gaped slightly.

“Saihara-kun?! I _thought_ I knew you! Please, please, come in.” She beckoned his entrance, and he felt a mild amount of relief.

“I’m glad it wasn’t just me, I was sure we’d met before...my apologies, but could you please refresh my memory?”

Smiling, Shuichi stepped in and quickly surveyed his surroundings. Along the lemon-chiffon painted walls of the cafe were many empty pine shelves, installed at various heights, with either a light turquoise or emerald cloth bridge between them. Of the tables in the center of the room, each one had beside it what looked like a couple of four-sided cubes constructed from pine planks, stacked vertically to form a couple of tall steps. The inside cubby of said cubes, along with the topmost platform, were lined with plush cushions that appeared to utilize the same fabric as the cloth bridges. The cafe booths against the walls essentially framed their own respective cloth hammock attached to the center of the wall of the booth, and featured ramps that led up to the top of the wooden seat backs. Shuichi found the layout to be quirky yet cute, and presumably ideal for the furry felines.

“Ah, I was on the student council at Hope’s Peak during your first year!” As soon as she said that, Shuichi looked back at her, and his vague recollection of her made more sense, why he could see a yellow hoodie with bunny ears covering her head and framing her rosy-cheeks, her lips downturned with an unimpressed frown. “I was a senior—I believe we only met in passing. I’m Umesawa Aiko.” She smiled brightly, the warmth reaching her heterochromatic-colored eyes.

“Umesawa-senpai…” Her name and former title just trickled off the tip of his tongue. “You were...the Super High School Level Animal Rehabilitator, correct?” She nodded, and he returned her smile. “A pleasure to meet you again."

“Likewise! I don’t believe we ever really talked back then,” Umesawa led him to the booth Spades had already claimed for herself, “I was much more... _acquainted_ with the troublemaker in your class: Ouma.”

Shuichi blinked, then chuckled nervously as he removed his jacket and hung it over the back of the booth. “O-oh? That’s...not at all surprising,” he admitted with a bit of a sigh.

“ _But!_ I suppose it wasn’t too bad, it’s sort of thanks to him that I got to know Minoru-kun and eventually Miho-chan here.” Umesawa smiled warmly at Spades as Shuichi sat down. The detective noted a quick, almost unnoticeable eye-twitch on the part of Spades at the suggestion their friendship came about because of Kokichi. He raised a brow at Spades.

“Really now? I wasn’t aware of that,” he commented casually, even though he was actually prodding for further details. Spades pouted a bit and grumbled.

“Well yeah. Big Sib was in the Reserve Course, and they knew Ouma from chess club in middle school. So when they overheard Ouma was going to pull some stupid, big prank, Big Sib leaked the info to the Hope’s Peak Student Council.” Spades shrugged as Shuichi nodded, a theory starting to formulate in his head.

“Ah, did you and Kagesa-kun get closer after that incident, Umesawa-san?” His former senpai smiled and nodded, her cheeks twinged with a slight blush.

“We did. I was really worried my last year would be a nightmare—within days of your class being admitted, we had to deal with reports of firecrackers detonating behind the toilets _while_ they were being used, teachers’ offices being broken into—nothing stolen, but their knick-knacks were moved between shelves. So many _stupid_ little things.” She rubbed her temples at the memory. “Minoru-kun prevented a lot of headaches, they were a lifesaver.” Brushing a lock of hair behind her ear, Umesawa turned to Spades. “So what can I get for you?”

Spades put her elbows on the table, laced her fingers together, and rested her chin on her hands. “Bring me Elric,” she intoned.

Umesawa rolled her eyes, and Shuichi was puzzled. “Well, _duh._ What do you want to drink, or eat? Honestly, Miho-chan!”

“You’re no fun!” Spades whined, puffing out her cheeks. “Cafe au lait and some fruit tarts?”

The former SHSL-Animal Rehabilitator hummed an ‘mmmhmm,’ then turned to Shuichi with a bit more of a professional demeanor. “What would you like, Saihara-kun?”

“Ah, just a black coffee, please. I don’t really eat breakfast,” he explained with a nervous laugh. “Thank you, Umesawa-san.”

The blonde young woman nodded with a small smile. “I’ll be right back!” With that, she moved briskly to the ajar door behind the front counter and exited, securely clicking it shut behind her.

Looking across the table, Shuichi noted that Spades was eyeing him incredulously, a slight frown adorning her face. “I thought you said you had a breakfast date. Does Moon-Moon _really_ let you get away with ‘I don’t really eat breakfast’?”

“No, he doesn’t,” he denied with a minor shake of his head. But after a moment, the detective’s lips stretched into a bit of a wry smirk. “...However, he’s not exactly here right now.”

Spades snorted, a grin superseding her frown. “I’ll drink to that!” Reflecting her laughter, Shuichi placed his elbows on the table, his right arm resting horizontally and his left vertically, and casually leaned his chin against his left wrist.

“So...Chip was effectively a triple-agent at Hope’s Peak?”

Spades stilled, her amused expression morphing into an annoyed pout. “Well...yeah. Moon-Moon thought there was something fishy going on at the school, so he wanted someone to have easy access to the ins-and-outs of the council. See if they knew anything.” Her words were guarded, but her glare was akin to a cat primed to strike. “But that doesn’t mean the irritatingly drawn-out feelings Big Sib and Aiko-chan share aren’t real, Pageboy.”

“I wasn’t meaning to insinuate that in the slightest,” Shuichi placated, waving his hands in front of him and fully intending to drop the topic.

_“Good,”_ she punctuated with a tonal finality, turning her head to look towards the door Umesawa left through.

Sighing, Shuichi leaned back, resting his head against the backrest of the booth, and briefly closed his eyes before he thought better of it. As he was still waiting on the cup of coffee, he was unable to drink away the awkward silence. Additionally he had to actively resist the urge of his hand to reach up to his collar and fiddle with the D-ring there. An absent-minded, anxious fidget Shuichi developed after he started wearing the aluminum ring 24/7, funnily enough brought to his attention, weeks previously, by Spades herself.

That observation, coupled with her use of his codename, brought a four-year old nagging mystery to the forefront of Shuichi’s mind. He looked back across at his unplanned breakfast companion, who had pulled out her phone and was glued to the screen, routinely scrolling through whatever site she was on. He hummed a bit to draw her attention.

“Um, actually, there’s been something I’ve been wanting to ask you for a while…” Shuichi started, and was thankful that Spades looked up from her phone and was holding his gaze, although her head was cocked slightly to the side. She rolled her wrist to display her open palm, then flicked her fingers back towards herself. _Have at it._ “Why is my codename ‘Pageboy’? Other than mine and Kokichi’s, everyone else’s codenames seem to stem mostly from playing card games or card terms—Spades, Ace, Chip, Trick, Shark, Blaze—or are related to dice, in the case of Bones, Paws, and Snake Eyes. Kokichi being addressed as ‘Boss’ or ‘Soutou-sama’ by clients makes some amount of sense considering his role as leader and his talent, but I’ve never been able to make sense of mine.”

“You’re right about most of that, but, actually, only _your_ codename is the odd one out. The boss’s codename was never ‘Soutou,’ he just has prospective clients call him that because of his ridiculous talent classification by Hope’s Peak. He was always Joker.”

Shuichi pursed his lips into a firm, thin line as he chewed on that correction. “Then why? I know my codename was coined by you, but Kokichi never explained it to me. Said the story was ‘boring,’ which, considering how evasive he is regarding the topic, I’m fairly certain is a lie.”

_“Of course,_ he didn’t,” Spades grumbled. “Paranoid, prideful, twerpy twink.”

Unfortunately, Shuichi wasn’t allowed enough time to properly savor the most succinctly _accurate_ descriptor of his boyfriend to ever grace his ears, as their conversation and his line of inquiry was interrupted by the tingle of a tiny bell and the soft pattering of feet. Spades’ focus was immediately snatched by creature responsible, her eyes and smile widening in sheer glee.

When the feline with light grey fur speckled with cream-colored splotches mewed, Spades squeed:

“Elric my sweet baby girl!!”

The cat, Elric, promptly jumped up onto Spades, who immediately scooped her up and cradled her like an infant. While Spades puckered her lips to make kiss noises at her ‘sweet baby girl,’ the cat reached up and lightly rested her paw against Spade’s cheek.

Umesawa, balancing a tray with two coffee mugs and a plate of sweets, walked up with a fond look on her face and knowingly rolled her eyes at Spades’ antics. “She’s not a baby, Miho-chan, she’s six years old.”

“Bitch please, Aiko-chan. Being an adult kitty doesn’t keep her from being my baby.” Elric meowed. “See?! She agrees.”

“She wants to be let _down_ , Miho-chan,” the animal rehabilitator chided right before the cat squirmed out of Spades’ embrace and jumped up on the table, lazily lying down on it and swishing her tail. With her splayed out, Shuichi got a better look at the cat.

“Is that a prosthetic front leg?” Though it was similar in color to the grey of her coat, and in her earlier blur of movement was easy to mistake, while Elric was laying down it was plainly obvious that her left, front leg not only lacked fur but was a bit shiny, looking somewhat like an engineered boot.

“This little one was injured as a kitten, and, unfortunately, had to have her leg amputated. Afterwards she was very listless and depressed,” Umesawa explained as she set down each piece of dishware in front of its proper recipient, her lips pressed into a small, solemn smile. “I ended up enlisting two of the students in my neighboring class, 77-B, to help design and build a custom prosthetic for her so she’d be happier again. That inadvertently ended up being our senior project—I just didn’t want her to give up on life so early.” Her tray empty, Umesawa gripped its rim and held the disc vertically behind her, shifting a bit in place.

“Thank you,” Shuichi nodded to Umesawa as glanced at his mug’s design: cream-colored ceramic, with a black glaze along one side painted to form the image of a sitting cat, its tail branching up and out from the canvas of the mug to function as its handle. He smiled. “Why is her name Elric?” At that question, Umesawa rolled her eyes with a sigh, but her small smile still seemed a bit fond.

“When Miho-chan saw the first prosthetic prototype, she asked if I was having ‘automail’ made for the cat. She named her ‘Elric’ right then and there. It wasn’t worth the fuss to keep correcting Miho-chan that her name was Azuki.”

“But even her backstory fits!” Spades argued with a pout.

With a nonchalant glance, Shuichi mused: “Is that so? It seems like Kagesa-san has a habit of handing out nicknames.”

“Ah, you’ve noticed that too? She’s named a lot of the cats here, actually,” Umesawa laughed lightly. “Speaking of, I need to start preparing them for their day, if you’ll excuse me. It was nice to meet you again, Saihara-kun.”

Umesawa bowed slightly, Shuichi returning her gesture. When he straightened after hearing her soft footsteps retreat, he found himself face to face with an unimpressed Spades having her nose tickled by Elric’s tail.

“Please tell me you’re not that obvious all the time. That just now had the subtlety of a grand piano falling down the stairs,” Spades verbally cut into him dryly, then physically into her first tart with her fork. Shuichi hummed, taking a long drag from his mug, his taste-buds rousing from his drink’s almost-scalding temperature and its rich, expressive, bitter flavor.

“Umesawa-san didn’t seem to notice anything off, and I wasn’t exactly trying to be subtle to you, anyways.” The detective shrugged, eyeing his colleague intently. Spades yawned and stretched, Elric jumping down from the table to rest in her lap.

“Touché, Pagelock Holmes.” Spades, with a pleased and relaxed expression, cupped her own mug and sipped the cafe au lait. After a moment she gently set her drink back on the table. “You wanna see what started it all?”

The ominous glint in her eyes that didn’t quite match her innocent smile gave Shuichi pause, until he remembered that it was likely just her occasional flare for the dramatic spilling out for her own entertainment. He nodded at her resolutely, and drank more of his coffee. Spades giggled, her eyes twinkling.

“ _Awesome!_ Now I can let you in on the secret of how every time someone calls you Pageboy, it’s lowkey reminding the Boss what a dumbass he is.” Reaching over and into her bag, Spades pulled out a clasped leather case about the size of Shuichi’s hand. After undoing the clasp, she removed a small bundle, wrapped in a star-patterned handkerchief. She carefully unfolded the fabric to reveal a large deck of cards—specifically, her tarot cards. Shuichi’s lips twitched into a nervous smile as he blinked in surprise.

“It’s from a tarot reading?”

“Mmhmm! His ridiculous behavior forever burned the reading into my memory, so just gimme a sec.”  Spades turned the deck face-side up, and starting flipping through her cards. Occasionally she’d find a card, and she’d set it aside in a small stack, face-side down. Elric peered up at the cards from her position on Spades’ lap, and tried to slide them towards herself with her paw. Spades gently pushed her paw away and distracted her with scratches under the feline’s chin.  “To replicate it I’ll need to stack the deck, but when I did it for him there was no funny business, despite his accusations.” She rolled her eyes, and took a quick swig of her drink. “The usual procedure is I’d shuffle the cards until the person requesting the reading tells me to stop, and then they physically cut deck how they’d like.” To illustrate, she took the larger deck and lifted up about half of the cards, setting them down and placing the once-lower half on top of them. “The dork cut the deck by picking up the top two cards. But he saw me shuffle, and I don’t know any sleazy card tricks, so he was just mad that the reading ended up being so on point.” While Spades starting arranging the cards she set aside in a particular fashion, Shuichi covered his mouth with his hand and hummed at he stared at the card backs. Eight cards in total, all touching, in a perfectly symmetrical pattern. A lone card on the far left and far right, next to two cards that met around the lone cards’ middle, and those four cards surrounding a final two placed a bit lower, so that the top middle card was parallel with the two lone cards. The card arrangement looked vaguely familiar, like he recognized their shape, but he couldn’t immediately place it.

“I mean, knowing how... _skeptical_ Kokichi is, it doesn’t surprise me he’d be suspicious, if the reading was truly that accurate.” Shuichi looked up and saw Spades’ unimpressed stare, her mouth pressed into a thin line.

“Ya don’t say?” Her voice was flat and Shuichi flushed a bit. He took a drink to hide behind the coffee mug. “Anyway if you know anything about how tarot cards work, the meanings of the cards are a bit general. Sometimes a card might seem really on the nose for a specific person, but the meanings and how they apply to certain situations, or people, is really open to interpretation. You have to work in order to figure out _how_ it would apply—you have to make sense of it. Some people believe the cards hold magic or divination power, but that’s not me. I just think of tarot as a method to force me to think of a problem from a new perspective. I just play up the woojy mystic angle cuz I think it’s funny, and it earns me more dough. Honestly it’s a _great_ way to make money as an unlicensed therapist.”

Shuichi coughed, abruptly placing his mug back on the table, as the unexpected sardonic jab mid-explanation wrenched a laugh from him mid-drink. When he peered up from his mini-fit, he saw a mixed look of amusement and sympathetic concern coming from his friend.

“Hey, don’t sputter coffee on the cards, even if I do have amazing one-liners. Big Sib got me this deck for my birthday.”

“I-I’ll try to be m-more careful,” Shuichi got out weakly, his breathing starting to even out once more. Spades seemed to take advantage of the pause to enjoy more of her breakfast sweets, abandoning her fork and thus all illusion of delicate etiquette in favor of picking it up between her fingers to nosh on the tart directly. A little bit of frosting stuck to the corner of her mouth. “What kind of reading was it, anyways?”

“Oh, just the kind that’s usually requested by desperate schoolgirls. He said it was purely for laughs, but he was obviously lying. You couldn’t tell from the arrangement?” Shuichi’s eyes widened, finally able to identify the cards’ shape thanks to her casual commentary: a _heart_.

His own pounded a bit, a faint blush on his cheeks as he croaked out in incredulous embarrassment, “A-a love reading? _Really?”_

Spades snickered. “Right? Talk about thirsty.”

Drinking the last dregs of his coffee as he pondered this morsel of information, Shuichi set the mug down with a severe, dark pause. “...When exactly did he request this reading? You and the others have been calling me Pageboy for as long as I’ve known you.”

“Yeah, that’s cuz it was just a few weeks before we actually met.” Spades shrugged and looked down with a fond smile, petting Elric in her lap.

“So towards the end of our first year at Hope’s Peak,” the detective discerned, habitually covering his mouth with his hand, his eyes trailing downwards to stare unfocused to his left.

He only snapped out of it after a few moments, due to Spades waving her hand in the air directly in front of his eyes.

“Hey you look super-serious right now. What’s up Pageboy? You okay?”

“I...have a suspicion. But I need more information,” he admitted with a slight sigh, finally dropping his hand. “Spades could you show me the reading? Please?”

Spades grinned, snickering deviously. “Weeell, since you asked so nicely,” she punctuated her statement by flipping over the leftmost card in front of him.

The card’s image was that of a white rabbit crouched at a pond’s bank, peering down into the water, a full moon overhead. Interestingly enough, however, the pond showed a false reflection: in it, the white rabbit was upright on its hind legs, facing away from the bank, and the moon was a stylistic crescent moon, appearing as if it had a rippling void within it. Looked as if the not-”reflected” white rabbit was staring directly at the moon in the water. Bordering the base of the image were the roman numerals XVIII and English text: THE MOON.

“‘This first card represents you’”—Shuichi felt a strong flicker of confusion, before Spades cleared her throat and interrupted her own soliloquy—“I’m going to first explain each card as if you were him back then, so calm down alright.” Umesawa quietly approached, with a new mug in hand and gripping the handle of a pot of coffee. She replaced Spades’ empty cup with the new, full one, and topped off Shuichi’s mug.

“Thank you.” He nodded to Umesawa, who repeated the gesture with a tiny smile and then left as hurriedly as she arrived.

“Aiko-chan you’re the best!” Spades called after her, then returned her focus to her retelling. “Now, as I was saying,” she pointed to the Moon card, “‘this card represents you. Like, holy hell is this you: strong emotions, _shifting_ moods; illusions, distorting reality. Imagination and creativity. But it’s also a card of uncertainty and fear. It’s like the tides—powerful, easy to be swept up under all of the countless possibilities and ideas and even anxiety surrounding them, to the point where you ignore your gut intuition and drown. Listen to your gut, and don’t get too bogged down by the details.’”

As she finished her first monologue, Shuichi carefully touched the card, tracing the lettering with his fingers. “This is...this is _actually_ why you call him ‘Moon-Moon,’ isn’t it?”

Her grin widened. “Ding-ding-ding! Correct-o-mundo, Pageboy!”

“You’re _taunting_ him,” he accused, though the detective couldn’t remove the mirth from his features.

“Problem?” She maturely stuck her tongue out at him, and he laughed in response.

“No objections here.” After a moment, Shuichi straightened his face. “Continue?”

“Gladly!” Spades placed her fingers over the rightmost card, and gently turned it over. Shuichi blinked at the unexpected imagery: a platypus swimming joyfully, looking up at a purple lotus flower sinking above it. He raised his brow a bit and looked up at his companion. She sighed and explained: “It’s this particular deck’s theme—animals, and the artist did a really good job in representing the cards’ symbolism, in my opinion. I just got the deck earlier this year, but when I did the reading years ago I had the most common deck, the Rider-Waite. _Anyway_ , look no further, because here’s your answer.” She pointed to the card’s text at the bottom: PAGE OF CUPS . Shuichi blinked, once again shielding his lips with his hand as he thought. “‘This card represents the guy you’re interested in, his overall condition: The Page of Cups. Don’t argue with me, Boss, yes _his_ ; I see you eyeing tall-dark-and-handsomes all the damn time, regrettably I _know_ your type.’”  
  
Shuichi flushed in spite of himself, temporarily distracted from his objective and suspicion by the pulse of affection swelling in his chest from the mere _implication_ that, even back then, he matched the physique that Kokichi desired on a primal level.  
  
“‘Cups is the suit of emotions, the soul,’” Spades continued, enunciating her next word with a particularly sappy quality: “‘ _Love_.’” Theatrically she batted her eyelashes and puckered her lips while making teasing, kissyface-noises. Shuichi chuckled, appreciating that her joke grounded him into the present of this impression of the past. “‘The Page acts as the steward of this suit. He’s compassionate and understanding, playful _and_ inviting, so really exactly the type you’d want to be with. _However_ , to be as understanding as he is, the Page requires the truth. He’s very honest and sincere, and he really needs that in return.’”

The detective hummed, leaning back as he took a drink from his fresh coffee. “That is...fairly on the nose.”

Spades put her fingers over what was apparently the next card in the reading, the topmost card adjacent to the Moon. “Well most people would consider themselves honest and sincere, y’know? Because they try to be. And nobody likes being lied to. Even Moon-Moon thinks he’s sincere _in essence_ , he’s just deluded himself into believing that it’s intellectually _complex_ and that people need to better at reading between his lines.”

He chuckled. “You’re not wrong,” he admitted sheepishly, but kept to himself that _Kokichi isn’t exactly wrong on that, either._

Spades finally turned over the next card. It depicted a green duck just lifting off in front of a broadsword sheathed in a mound of sand. At the base of the card was its title: PAGE OF SWORDS.

“‘This card represents your emotional state, and it’s interesting that another Page showed up here. His presence in your emotions parallels the Page in your crosshairs, and strengthens the significance and meaning of them both. Swords is the suit of _action,_ whether good, bad, thought-out, or hasty. Knowing you, you’ve probably been dropping hints in a dumbass way that _you_ think is clever, but isn’t going to be interpreted the way you actually want. The Page of Swords’ action is unconventional and can be seen as abrasive or insensitive, but he’s persistent, and his action is both quick _and_ precise. But _because_ your action is fast, you may not be thinking through the situation from all angles, Boss. You may be feeling that your end goal of being with him justifies your methods, but you gotta slow down and consider how _he_ feels, too. Beyond just whether he’ll return your feelings or not.’”

While she paused and took a drink, Shuichi stared at the card, mulling over that assessment and comparing it to what he had come to know about his paramour during their first year. He wetted his lips before he inquired, “How did he react to that?”

Spades simply snickered. He met her gaze and observed how she casually tickled Elric while she spoke. “Oh, he was a little pissed, but by that point I had him hooked on my every word. He _feigned_ indifference but I knew, and he knew it. Like, he hummed and asked, ‘Oh? Then how _does_ he feel?’ It was too damn obvious he was invested as fuck.”

Shuichi nodded, his hand over his mouth again as he looked back down at the cards, five of them still facedown. “What was next?”

“Uh, I’m trapped, you can flip the cards over now.” He glanced up to see that Elric was tightly cradled in Spades’ arm, but she had coiled her paw around the wrist of the hand that was petting her. Shuichi chuckled a bit at Spades’ predicament. “Top card on your right. Flipping order is an easy pattern: outside-in, top to bottom, starting on the left and mirroring each left-flip with what it’d be on the right.”

“Got it.” With an amused smile, Shuichi flipped over the next card. Clinging to a tiny, barren tree at night was a red panda with a bit of a forlorn expression. It seemed to be reaching out toward something small and glowing vibrantly—likely a firefly. Shuichi read the card’s title with surprise: IX THE HERMIT. When he made eye-contact with Spades, she nodded and continued her recitation.

“‘Now...that’s an interesting one. He mostly keeps to himself, doesn’t he?’” Shuichi figured his initial surprise must’ve completely transparent because Spades rolled her eyes while Elric rubbed her face against Spades’ palm and fingers. “Ugh, I know his type, remember? Dweeb.” Shuichi flushed a bit, electing to take another drink to hide behind the coffee mug. Spades cleared her throat. “ _Anyway…_ ‘He’s drawn to quiet because he wants a peaceful future. He either avoids or tries to diffuse conflict, yeah? So he acts very cautiously compared to your rapid action. Overthinks it, more than likely. But it’s not like he doesn’t want or is allergic to excitement, he just consciously wants security. To feel safe. Honestly this card just confirms how much sensitivity and consideration he needs.’”

Shuichi nodded, not sure how this bit of information, if taken to heart, actually impacted Kokichi’s behavior those years ago. Somewhat impatiently, he flipped over the third left card. A pair seahorses embracing, one securely grasping and seemingly kissing the other, the two surrounded by a frame of kelp. The charming depiction was numbered VI and titled THE LOVERS.

“‘Not surprising,’” Spades drawled, and for a moment Shuichi didn’t recognize it was part of her recollection. “‘More than just the surface _duh,_ the quality of the Lovers represents your unconscious desires and what you ultimately crave. You don’t just want a cute boy to squeeze, you want someone to care for _and care for you_ on a deeper level you’ve never experienced before. You want someone who can cut past the crap of your surface exterior and form a lasting, priceless bond. A complementary life-partner who will treasure you intimately just as much as he challenges you, and for you to be the same for him.’”

Shuichi swallowed thickly to ground himself, a hot blush coating his cheeks. “Y-you’re...quite good at this.”

“Of course I am, Pagey!” She patted Elric’s head—it seemed the cat had fallen asleep—and carefully reached for her cup to sip from. “It’s funny you’re blushing as much as you are, your face is about the same color his was then.”

He wasn’t sure whether to be surprised by that revelation—even after years of dating it was still rare for him to see Kokichi blush—or assured that he had support for his hypothesis. Regardless, he flipped over the card that apparently represented _his_ desires back then.

Along the bed of the ocean floor were two spotted grey seals. The foreground seal appeared to be resting upon the floor, attention curiously inclined and focused toward the other, approaching seal. Nearly nose to nose and clearly enraptured with each other, the bodies of the seals, together, formed the curve of an ‘S.’ Sharing the suit of his namesake, the card was the TWO OF CUPS.

“‘Well, well lookie here, Boss, seems like you and your Pageboy have similar desires.’” Shuichi looked up, alarmed, though he could easily envision an annoyed Kokichi from being teased like that. He wasn’t entirely sure if Spades’ smug look was from his current confusion, her memory of messing with Kokichi, or a combination of the two. But she continued: “‘While, yes, they’re different cards, the Two of Cups can be thought of as a sister card to the Lovers. Almost the equivalent card in the Minor Arcana of the suit cards. But they aren’t the same. Your boy wants balance, more than consistent, interconnected fireworks, but I guess you could say an unending _equivalent exchange_ of give and take.’”

She smirked when she uttered particular phrasing, which went entirely over Shuichi’s head. Groaning and pouting, Spades stared at Shuichi pointedly. “Ugh, really? He said he hated me for working in that Fullmetal reference so flawlessly and you’re too uncultured to even recognize it!”

Shuichi blinked, and laughed sheepishly. “ _Oh,_ that...alchemist series? Kokichi’s tried to get me to read that, but I’m more into mysteries, not action manga…” He reached to flip over the next card.

“It totally has cool mysteries! Geez that’s why I thought you’d know it,” she huffed. Shuichi sighed in defeat. _I guess Kokichi_ _wasn’t_ _lying when he said the same thing..._

“I might check it out then.” Turning over the penultimate, top middle card, Shuichi saw the image of a tiny, red boar in a defensive stance, backed against wall with five spears aimed at it. The FIVE OF WANDS.

“‘This card represents your relationship with your Pageboy as it is now,’” Spades began, the edge in the tone of her voice duller than previously. “‘Wands is the suit of thought—conviction and ideals. It signifies that there’s an immense amount of effort in your relationship, but the energy invested may not be currently productive. There’s inherent conflict, and confusion, that needs to be worked through. The clashing and misunderstandings you two may have come in part from rash actions or being stuck on initial preconceptions. Like I said earlier, it’d be best for you to be able to step back and reevaluate. There’s a lot of energy here with huge positive potential, so you want to make sure you’re using it effectively.’”

Shuichi nodded, his features growing solemn, as his hand hovered over the final card. “If I’m understanding the pattern correctly, was the last card representative of our future?”

“Yep!” Spades chirped.

Shuichi took in a weighty breath before he revealed the image of a raven, a white rose clutched in its talon, flapping just above desolate earth speckled with dead grass and brush, as well as three raven skulls. The background showcased an orange sky with a setting sun, the card captioned number XIII: DEATH.

Biting his lip, the detective held his breath for a moment, before it left him shakily. It took him a few moments to notice the oddity of the complete absence of Spades’ monologue. He looked up, and raised his brow. She chuckled and rolled her eyes.

“That’s it. As soon as I flipped over that card, his face went blank and before I could even _give_ an explanation he freaked out and buzzed off. ‘Well this was fun, thanks for the laughs,’ you know the kind of bullshit he says.” Shuichi sighed.

“So what _does_ the card mean?” Shuichi took a very much needed gulp from his coffee mug, his analytical gaze significantly sharpening.

“Change. New beginnings—it’s not necessarily a nail in the coffin. I mean when you two started going out it was basically the end of your previous relationship to begin a new kind. It’s like a phoenix.” Spades shrugged, making Elric stir from her slumber and bound off her lap. “And after you showed up and you two started being lovey-dovey, he tried to shove it in my face how wrong my reading was because you got together. I handed his ass to him and since then he’s been calling me a witch.”

As the last puzzle piece finally clicked into place, Shuichi couldn’t help but groan and hang his head, clutching his temples. A mixture of both relief and sheer frustration washed over him. He felt warm with the confused, sudden intensity, and without realizing it he unbuttoned the top of his dress shirt and started to, very agitatedly, toy with the ring of his collar.

When Spades started stammer out her concern with his change in behavior, Shuichi vented his explanation:

“Four years. _Four years_ I’ve thought that my shoddy investigative work nearly cost me the most fulfilling relationship I’ve ever had, that I just _barely_ figured it all out in the nick of time before he completely lost interest. I mean it’s so, _so_ unlike him to just give up on something he wants so of course he must’ve been getting bored of waiting for me to figure it out, right?” He laughed bitterly. “But no, he was so internally nervous about it all that he got spooked, hit the back button, _and was too prideful to admit it_.” Finally looking up again, Shuichi’s harsh, morose eyes met Spades’ baffled and intrigued ones. “I wasn’t mad this morning with him being an ass toward you, but _now?_ Now I’m livid. I’d say I can’t believe him but no this is one-hundred percent believable.”

Lips quirking in amused, Spades regarded her newfound comrade. “I mean, I’m happy you’re officially on my side, but what the heck are you talking about?”

Shuichi reached behind him, rifling through his coat pocket until he retrieved his wallet. As he flipped through the contents, he more evenly elaborated. “This is why Kokichi didn’t want me getting close to you, because he didn’t want me to connect the dots. He knew I’d be able to link this reading you performed for him to the events before we got together. While I don’t think he realizes how much I’ve stressed and beat myself up over the idea I almost lost him, I don’t care. This is ridiculous, even for him.”

From the corner of his eye, Shuichi noted Spades practically sparkling with rapt attention. Carefully he plucked a small, folded note that was tucked behind a picture of him and the moron he loved. Opening the paper just as gingerly, fondly, Shuichi displayed its message to Spades.

She squinted as she read the note aloud. “‘To Saihara-san...whatever you’re going through, you know your classmates are here for you, right? When Saihara-san is hiding, I can’t see his handsome face.’” She wrinkled her nose. “He gave that to you? I mean I know he’s gay, but that’s gaaaaay. And since when does he use ‘san’?”

Shuichi expelled a short laugh. “He didn’t give it to me directly—he left it on my desk, secretly. The ‘san’ was supposed to be a misdirection, so I didn’t even know it was him for the longest time. But this where it started, and this note is what, ultimately, helped me identify my phantom admirer.” Noting Spades’ somewhat bored expression, Shuichi quickly added, “Want to hear the whole story of how Kokichi nearly sabotaged his own happiness because he failed to listen to you?”

Leaning forward, Spades placed her elbows on the table and cupped her face with her hands. She nodded giddily and emphatically, like a child being presented with an absurdly large lollipop. _“Spill it.”_

Shuichi smiled, consciously rebuttoning his shirt before he took a quick swig of his coffee. When he closed his eyes, his long lashes fluttering against his cheeks, he could almost feel the slight wobble of his classroom chair and hear the creak from Kokichi sitting on top of an adjacent desk to tease him. In his mind he reached for those moments, and clutched them tightly.

He opened his eyes.

“After I completed my first and only semester at Spring Field Academy, I was scouted, and accepted the offer to transfer to Hope’s Peak Academy…”

**Author's Note:**

> Credit to Fastern for Ouma's DICE name of Joker, I totally stole it because I liked it so much.  
> Additionally, the tarot art described was beautifully created by Joanna Cheung (rainbowofcrazy), and are from her Animism Tarot deck.
> 
> You're welcome for the most random ship ever, random DICE member/Pikagirl. Also Spades' behavior with the cat is 110% a call-out post to myself.
> 
> Please leave kudos and comments if you enjoyed this!
> 
> —
> 
> Now that I've finished this first part I can start and finish a commission for a friend. Afterwards, the plan is Blood Bag chapter 3 and then finishing off this.
> 
> I'm on pillowfort now, and am pretty much constantly on discord. I've actually made a discord server to discuss my stories, find out my progress/otherwise keep up to date, and also share your own creative works! If you are interested in joining it, please send me a message and I'll give you an invite link!


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